Haken: A Capacity for Violence Part 14

This story features forge master Haken and takes place between the events of 'Werewolves: Haven Rising' and 'Werewolves 3: Evolution's End.' 

[If you haven't read part 13, click on the Collections tab and select 'Werewolves' to find the previous chapter of this story.]

The next two months were simultaneously the slowest of Haken's life and the fastest. Hours spent alone in his cell stretched on forever, while every second he spent with Alice felt like it passed in a heartbeat. 

It came as a surprise to Haken that he was beginning to grow accustomed to Dr. Lim's lab and the associated poking and prodding that came along with it. Not all that long ago he'd have fought tooth and claw over the thought of being forced back into a life of medical experiments, but unlike the masked butchers in Haven, Dr. Lim was surprisingly personable, if occasionally off-putting. She made an effort to speak to him like a person and that made all the difference. From time to time her off-color jokes actually made him chuckle. He still didn't like her and he never would, but not hating a human was a welcome change of pace from the dull routine of habitual animosity.

Of course his change in attitude wasn't entirely due to the doctor. Alice had quickly grown from a curiosity to something...more. It wasn't quite love–he wasn't sure if he had ever truly felt that–but it was a deep affection and camaraderie similar to what he felt for those he had been closest with during the purgatory years in Haven. His experience was something she also understood, something she'd gone through in her own way, only with different tormentors. How many years had he dealt with the humans' relentless scientific curiosity? The weekly torture sessions had dulled him to surface-level pain and injury–although he was growing soft again since the escape. Alice, the gods bless her, was a double-edged sword in that regard, both sharpening and dulling his senses between their regular sparring and pleasurable liaisons. 

He wondered how she truly felt about him. Did she care for him as much as it appeared or was he simply the most convenient male–the only male–available to her. Well, the latter was certainly true in any case, but he was beginning to think she may actually like him for who he was, and that was something he hadn't felt in a very, very long time. But was Haken the smitten also Haken the fool? Only time would tell.

"–you listening? Earth to lover-boy!" 

"What?" Haken asked, jerked forcibly from his thoughts as Dr. Lim shook his arm. "Oh," he said. "I think I lost track of where I was." His wit was dulled, his body sluggish. "What did you inject me with?"

Lim smiled. Her subject's return to attentiveness seemed to please her. "Nothing untoward, I assure you," she said. "I've been working on something to modify your metabolism–make it easier for you to shift into wolf form without the need to devour upward of four-thousand calories. You're eating me out of house and home, my dear." A sharp beep came from her computer, but she ignored it, focusing her attention on him.

"Why would you want to make the transformation easier for me?" Haken asked, suddenly suspicious. That was the kind of thing the Haven doctors were always messing around with. They were designing more efficient killing machines, after all. 

"Curiosity," she replied, a frank expression on her face. "I also loathe inefficiency. I'd love to examine your lupine persona with more regularity, but my budget is stretched thin as it is without paying for twice as much food. I'm just as likely to be shut down as get an increase in funding if I make any kind of fuss, so we deal with what we have. Enhancing your abilities makes things easier on me and it has no drawbacks for you. Win-win."

The shrill beeping from her computer continued as she spoke and finally she heaved a heavy sigh and pushed off against his bed, sending her desk chair rolling across the floor. "If this is Dr. Burgess again, I'll have his guts for garters. The man–"

Her mouth snapped shut with a sharp click of teeth when she looked at the monitor and she breathed in heavily through her nose. The mood in the room shifted instantly.

"What?" Haken asked. "What is it?"

"Those aren't my soldiers," she hissed. "What are they doing?"

The familiar sound of gunshots rang out in the hall, sending a spike of adrenaline through Haken's body, effectively banishing his drug-induced lethargy. "Let me out of this thing!" he snapped, pulling his arms against the metal restraints holding his wrists tight. "I won't die strapped down like a dog!"

"Nobody's dying!" Lim said as she jumped up, nearly flying over the floor to the opposite wall. She pulled a clear plastic box open, revealing a large red button. She smashed her palm down on it and an alarm wailed out a second later. The lights dimmed and changed color until they were almost red. "There's going to be hell to pay! What were they thinking, sending their people here?" Several more shots echoed through the adjoining hallway. The resulting scream of pain seemed to give the doctor hesitation, dampening her fiery resolve for a moment. "How dare they?" She rushed over to Haken's bedside and began fiddling with his restraints.

"Who are they?" Haken asked. "It sounds like you know who they are."

"General Greene's men," Lim said. "I could make out their insignia on the video feed."

"Who the hell is General Greene?"

The doctor sniffed. "More like who was General Greene. He used to control the werewolf prison we spoke about not long after you arrived, the one called the Nail. He was murdered and replaced by your good friend General Rivera. A few weeks later, there was a breakout–all the werewolves escaped, killing several dozen soldiers in the process. Greene's loyalists blame Rivera for being too soft on wolves."

Several more shots rang out from the hallway as Haken's first restraint popped off. Lim moved to the other side of the bed.

"But how are they here?" Haken asked. "Why come here with guns?"

"I thought it was only a rumor," Lim replied. "People in paranormal research have been whispering about it all week like gossiping grannies. They said that Greene's loyalists left the service and joined some kind of PMC led by an ex-colonel."

"PMC?"

"Private military company. The point is, they've been agitating for all werewolf research to be suspended and for all detainees to be put down. I thought it was all bluster, but…" She looked him in the eyes. "I'm your only friend in this system, Haken," she said. "The only one who will always advocate for you. I'm trusting you enough to release this last restraint. Don't bite the hand that feeds you."

The strap came off and Haken raised his arm, feeling the full blood flow return to his extremities. The inner beast wanted to use this opportunity to attack her–she was a human experimenting on him after all–but she was right. Out of all the humans he'd been forced to interact with since his incarceration, she was the only one who had consistently come down on his side time and again. If that didn't matter, then nothing did. He didn't like her, but he no longer hated her enough to strangle her to death. 

He grunted. Haken the tamed.

A heavy fist pounded against the lab door. "Open up! Anyone harboring one of the animals will die alongside it!"

"Hmm," Haken muttered as he began to shift forms. "Maybe I'm not so tamed after all."